Department of Political Science, Pennsylvania State University, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Contentious Politics and Political Violence, Political Values, Beliefs, and Ideologies, Why African Traditional Institutions Endure, Authority Systems of Africas Traditional Institutions, Relevance and Paradox of Traditional Institutions, https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.1347, United Nations Office of the Special Adviser on Africa, Global Actors: Networks, Elites, and Institutions, Traditional Leaders and Development in Africa. The arguments against traditional institutions are countered by arguments that consider traditional institutions to be indispensable and that they should be the foundations of African institutions of governance (Davidson, 1992). The debate is defined by "traditionalists" and "modernists." . At times, devolution has had major fiscal and governance consequences, including serving as a vehicle for co-option and corruption. For Acemoglu and Robinson, such turning points occur in specific, unique historical circumstances that arise in a societys development. Legal norms are an integral part of the discussion about inclusivity since they affect every aspect of economic and personal life; this poses a critical question over whether individual rights or group rights take precedence in the normative hierarchy. They also serve as guardians and symbols of cultural values and practices. This outline leads us to examine more closely the sources of legitimacy in African governance systems. Keywords: Legal Pluralism, African Customary Law, Traditional Leadership, Chieftaincy, Formal Legal System Relationship With, Human Rights, Traditional Norms, Suggested Citation:
Why the traditional systems endure, how the institutional dichotomy impacts the process of building democratic governance, and how the problems of institutional incoherence might be mitigated are issues that have not yet received adequate attention in African studies. This situation supported an external orientation in African politics in which Cold War reference points and former colonial relationships assured that African governments often developed only a limited sense of connection to their own societies. These migrations resulted in part from the formation and disintegration of a series of large states in the western Sudan (the region north of modern Ghana drained by the Niger River). You cant impose middle class values on a pre-industrial society.13. However, they are not merely customs and norms; rather they are systems of governance, which were formal in precolonial times and continue to exist in a semiformal manner in some countries and in an informal manner in others. Another issue that needs some clarification is the neglect by the literature of the traditional institutions of the political systems without centralized authority structures. The system of government in the traditional Yoruba society was partially centralised and highly democratic. In other cases, however, they survived as paid civil servants of the state without displacing the traditional elder-based traditional authority systems. The political history of Africa begins with the emergence of hominids, archaic humans andat least 200,000 years agoanatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens), in East Africa, and continues unbroken into the present as a patchwork of diverse and politically developing nation states. The geography of South Africa is vast scrubland in the interior, the Namib Desert in the northwest, and tropics in the southeast. African Political Systems is an academic anthology edited by the anthropologists Meyer Fortes and E. E. Evans-Pritchard which was published by Oxford University Press on the behalf of the International African Institute in 1940. Obstruction of nation-building: Nation-building entails a process of integrating different segments of the citizenry to form a community of citizens under shared institutions. But it also reflects the impact of Arab, Russian, Chinese, Indian, European and U.S. vectors of influence which project their differences into African societies. The Aqils (elders) of Somalia and the chiefs in Kenya are good examples. Third, Africas conflict burden reflects different forms and sources of violence that sometimes become linked to each other: political movements may gain financing and coercive support from criminal networks and traffickers, while religious militants with connections to terrorist groups are often adept at making common cause with local grievance activists. 17-19 1.6. It then analyzes the implications of the dual allegiance of the citizenry to chiefs and the government. The role of chieftaincy within post-colonial African countries continues to incite lively debates, as the case of Ghana exemplifies. Democratic and dictatorial regimes both vest their authority in one person or a few individuals. "Law" in traditional Igbo and other African societies assumes a wide dimension and should be understood, interpreted, and applied as such, even if such a definition conflicts with the Western idea. On the eve of the departure of the colonial power, the Nigerian power elite in collusion with the departing colonial authority, drew up an elaborate constitution for a liberal bourgeois state - complete with provisions for parties in government and those in opposition. This is in part because the role of traditional leaders has changed over time. Pastoral economic systems, for example, foster communal land tenure systems that allow unhindered mobility of livestock, while a capitalist economic system requires a private land ownership system that excludes access to others and allows long-term investments on land. Cookie Settings. African Governance: Challenges and Their Implications. With its eminent scholars and world-renowned library and archives, the Hoover Institution seeks to improve the human condition by advancing ideas that promote economic opportunity and prosperity, while securing and safeguarding peace for America and all mankind. African indigenous education was. The participatory and consensus-based system of conflict resolution can also govern inter-party politics and curtail the frequent post-election conflicts that erupt in many African countries. A partial explanation as to why the traditional systems endure was given in the section Why African Traditional Institutions Endure. The argument in that section was that they endure primarily because they are compatible with traditional economic systems, under which large segments of the African population still operate. West Africa has a long and complex history. As Mamdani has argued, understanding the role of traditional leadership and customary law in contemporary African societies requires us to understand its history. On the one side, there are the centralized systems where leaders command near absolute power. Second, the levels of direct battle deaths from these events is relatively low when compared with far higher levels in the wars of the Middle East. These circumstances can generate an authoritarian reflex and the temptation to circle the wagons against all sources of potential opposition. They must know the traditional songs and must also be able to improvise songs about current events and chance incidents. One influential research group, SIPRI in Sweden, counted a total of 9 active armed conflicts in 2017 (in all of Africa) plus another 7 post-conflict and potential conflict situations.3, More revealing is the granular comparison of conflict types over time. A third pattern flows from the authoritarian reflex where big men operate arbitrary political machines, often behind a thin democratic veneer. Lawmaking: government makes laws to regulate the behavior of its citizens. Your gift helps advance ideas that promote a free society. Three layers of institutions characterize most African countries. Legitimate authority, in turn, is based on accepted laws and norms rather than the arbitrary, unconstrained power of the rulers. These different economic systems have corresponding institutional systems with divergent property rights laws and resource allocation mechanisms, disparate decision-making systems, and distinct judicial systems and conflict resolution mechanisms. Still another form of legitimacy in Africa sometimes derives from traditional political systems based on some form of kingship. The post-colonial State, on the other hand . The express prohibition in the African Charter against discrimination according to ethnic group constitutes a major step for the continent as a whole because the realization of this right will lead to greater economic opportunity for those people not of the same kinship as the head of government. They are the key players in providing judicial service and in conflict management in much of rural Africa. A second objective is to draw a tentative typology of the different authority systems of Africas traditional institutions.
The pre-colonial system in Yoruba can be described to be democratic because of the inclusion of the principle of checks and balances that had been introduced in the system of administration. However, the system of traditional government varied from place to place. Even old-fashioned tyrants learn that inclusion or co-option are expensive. It seems clear that Africas conflict burden declined steadily after the mid-1990s through the mid-2000s owing to successful peace processes outstripping the outbreak of new conflicts; but the burden has been spiking up again since then. The same source concluded that 7 out of the 12 worst scores for political rights and civil liberties are African.11 As noted, the reasons vary: patrimonialism gone wrong (the big man problem), extreme state fragility and endemic conflict risks, the perverse mobilization of ethnicity by weak or threatened leaders. One scholar specializing on the Horn of Africa likens the situation a political marketplace in which politics and violence are simply options along the spectrum pursued by powerful actors.5. Traditional African religions are less of faith traditions and more of lived traditions.
Institutional systems emanate from the broader economic and political systems, although they also affect the performance of the economic and political systems. You could not be signed in, please check and try again. The third section deals with the post-colonial period and discusses some problems associated with African administration. This provides wide opportunity for governments to experiment, to chart a course independent of Western preferences, but it can also encourage them to move toward authoritarian, state capitalist policies when that is the necessary or the expedient thing to do. Rather, they are conveners of assemblies of elders or lower level chiefs who deliberate on settlement of disputes. Tribe Versus Ethnic Group. Roughly 80% of rural populations in selected research sites in Ethiopia, for example, say that they rely on traditional institutions to settle disputes, while the figure is around 65% in research sites in Kenya (Mengisteab & Hagg, 2017). The key lies in identifying the variables that will shape its context. In addition, resolution needs to be acceptable to all parties. The role of traditional leaders in modern Africa, especially in modern African democracies, is complex and multifaceted. This page was processed by aws-apollo-l2 in. A second attribute is the participatory decision-making system. A second conflict pattern can develop along the lines of ethnic cleavages which can be readily politicized and then militarized into outright ethnic violence. Additionally, the Guurti is charged with resolving conflicts in the country using traditional conflict resolution mechanisms. FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT. The end of colonialism, however, did not end institutional dichotomy, despite attempts by some postcolonial African states to abolish the traditional system, especially the chieftaincy-based authority systems. One common feature is recognition of customary property rights laws, especially that of land. Some regimes seem resilient because of their apparent staying power but actually have a narrow base of (typically ethnic or regional) support. Poor leadership can result in acts of commission or omission that alienate or disenfranchise geographically distinct communities. In addition, according to Chirayath et al. The parallel institutional systems often complement each other in the continents contemporary governance. MyHoover delivers a personalized experience atHoover.org. Posted: 12 May 2011. It is also challenging to map them out without specifying their time frame. This article contends that postcolonial African traditional institutions lie in a continuum between the highly decentralized to the centralized systems and they all have resource allocation practices, conflict resolution and judicial systems, and decision-making practices, which are distinct from those of the state. Ousted royals such as Haile Selassie (Ethiopia) and King Idriss (Libya) may be replaced by self-anointed secular rulers who behave as if they were kings until they, in turn, get overthrown. Any insurrection by a segment of the population has the potential to bring about not only the downfall of governments but also the collapse of the entire apparatus of the state because the popular foundation of the African state is weak. Africa contains more sovereign nations than any other continent, with 54 countries compared to Asia's 47. African Politics: A Very Short Introduction explores how politics is practised on the African continent, providing an overview of the different states and their systems. However, institutions are rarely static and they undergo changes induced by internal transformations of broader socioeconomic systems or by external influences or imposition, and in some cases by a combination of the two forces.
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